From Boardroom to Boardwalk: Corporate Skills in London Tour Guiding

Hello and welcome to London!

My name is Chris, and you are receiving this newsletter because we are connected on LinkedIn. My aim is to publish a fortnightly article which will blend some of my professional corporate background with fascinations and London quirks I observe whilst delivering walking tours across this amazing city. I hope you enjoy my content, and I very much invite you to share this with your network.

I am a Canadian who has been living in London since 2001. Despite holding a BA in British History, my career for 30 years was in IT, specifically "Dot Com." It has been a great career where I have met thousands of interesting and talented people, but my true core passion has always been London and its rich history. In 2018, when Withlocals, a leading global agency for walking tour guides, advertised a new opportunity in London, it seemed like the perfect fit – meeting interesting new people, showing them my favourite city, and perhaps earning a few quid on the side!

What a journey it has been! I have delivered over 300 tours through Withlocals (plus countless more through direct clients), maintaining a solid 5-star approval rating. A theme in this and future newsletters will be about the wide range of skills - including many that I have picked up over the course of my corporate career - are required in order to be a competent guide.

One of the most important tools a guide can have is adaptability. My bookings tend to be "private", meaning that when I am on a tour, I am exclusively dedicated to a specific unit group clients’ interests.

The booking could be for just one person, a family, or a larger corporate group of office colleagues, but in all cases, it is a contained unit. I enjoy this soft of guiding the most. Unlike the experience of walking with a group of strangers along a prescribed path (which I also like, but for different reasons), having a private group who can voice their own interests keeps me sharp and allows me to use the full extent of my local knowledge.

However, just as with professional consultancy, there is no "one size fits all" for one's clients and indeed there can be unpredictable risks in private bookings. My typical booking size is 4 people. A tour group of four people, could mean:

• Two parents and two young children, or toddlers in a pram, or teens!
• A group of retired friends on a casual and regular London stopover
• Competitive runners at the peak of physical fitness wanting a fast-paced tour
• Mobility-challenged individuals (sight impairment, or issues with stairs, or long walks)
• Non- native English speakers
• Local Londoners exploring their daily commute neighbourhood

In each case, I will deliver a slightly different tour - for example one with frequent and longer rest breaks (and therefore a shortened, time-bound journey) or more ground covered with more superficial content in the explanation.

Drawing from my consulting and training background, early in my walking career I started to apply a kind of mini "Discovery Session" to my clients, particularly when they're referred by 3rd parties who don't share more detailed background information with me. Within minutes of meeting a private group at the appointed date and time, I must understand their interests and tolerances and then go on to quickly craft a route which enables me to account for their individual needs, interests, and abilities, not to mention local weather and traffic conditions!

The Monopoly Board Pub Crawl

I often reflect on one of the first tours I ever organised. Over 20 years ago, I managed a social networking club for Canadians in London called the "Vandoos." We met on the 22nd of every month in a different pub to build personal and professional bonds. At one point, we decided to run a Monopoly Board Pub Crawl. Inspired by the British version of the popular real estate themed board game Monopoly, where each property corresponds to a real London street, the idea was to find a pub on each street and have a pint. This was already part of local culture and it was a tried and tested amusement, so we thought - why not?

Though immense fun, purists who do this pub crawl make over two dozen stops, consume a lot of beer, burn through a hefty budget, and need a very full day for the tour, (and, not to mention, at least another full day to recover from the tour!)

Any of these factors could be viewed as an insurmountable challenge. However, as the concept of a Monopoly Board-themed route is quite fun and a worthy objective in and of itself, we can apply some real-world consultancy techniques and adapted - or "reframe" - the objective an several ways.

For example:

• All Trails offers a 25km route starting at Old Kent Road and ending at Fleet Street, not in Monopoly order but much more efficiently for London's transportation network and geography, covering all of the stops.
• Triland Metals used the route to raise over ￡4,000 for charity, demonstrating a creative and philanthropic take on the walk.
• Richard McChesney walked the board in the correct order over 8-10 hours, embracing a nostalgic and thorough approach.
• Fastest Known Time reimagined the route as a 2-hour fast-paced challenge, showing how the concept can be adapted for time efficiency and speed.

Back in 2002, the Vandoos divided the route into three segments over three months which not only maximised attendance, but also gave our livers and pocket books time to recover!

We started at the Lord Nelson on Old Kent Road, and signed a portable travel Monopoly board that I had bought earlier, at each stop. We completed our mission in Ye Grapes (Mayfair) just before Christmas, three months later, having visited 26 new London pubs and creating a great story to tell two decades on.

Adaptability, Flexibility (and Empathy)

This theme of adaptability is key to both my personal and professional life. It’s about understanding and meeting client needs, often taking the a concept that has been applied successfully in the past, but applying it to different circumstances. This offers a good lesson in corporate business and leadership.

Just as adaptability has been crucial in my corporate career, it is essential in guiding tours. Different visitors enjoy - and certainly consume - London in different ways, and it is up to me to ensure I have the knowledge—be it in history, architecture, culture, or contemporary life—to help satisfy their needs. Whether a client is interested in the historical significance of the Tower of London, the architectural marvels of the city, the vibrant cultural scenes of Camden, or the latest in contemporary art, my goal is to tailor each tour to meet these diverse interests.

Understanding that every visitor has unique preferences and constraints allows me to create personalised experiences that resonate. This adaptability not only enhances their experience but also builds trust and satisfaction, much like in the corporate world where meeting client needs and exceeding expectations is paramount.

Is this something you would like to discuss over a beer - or coffee - crawl? I'd love to show you around some of my favourite sites in London!

{Monopoly and other brands featured here are protected names by various rights holders}.